@ Sunday Times Books LIVE

Patrick Bond, author of Politics of Climate Justice talked with Paul Jay from the The Real News about what is known as “the natural economy”, where there has been talk about neoliberalising nature and privatising air. Bond said that “natural capital” can be measured in ways that can be used properly in order to correct mistakes and imbalances.

However that hasn’t always been the case. He feels big business will put a price on everything, and even try to make money out of the climate crisis. He cited big corporations that have been taken to court and found guilty of abuse of the environment, but that have refused to pay up, or correct their actions and not do the same thing again. He said 2013′s struggle is how even aid agencies will lean towards markets.

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to what is going to become a series of reports on environmental and climate change issues with Patrick Bond, who now joins us from South Africa.

Patrick is the director of the Centre for Civil Society and a professor at the university of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He’s written many books. One of his latest is The Politics of Climate Justice and Durban’s Climate Gamble.